Heritage Virtual Travel: Let’s Go Online

There are people gifted with excessive amounts of riches that they can afford to go and visit all the exciting destinations in the world. A few select people have jobs that allow them to live in airports figuratively because they have to go to various locations for business purposes. But well not everyone has that luxury. With the current state of the global recession, luxury and leisurely trips are cut down to a minimum. Companies are cost-cutting on travel expenses. Moreover, jet planes can...

In November, the Idaho Division of Tourism launched a new 3D virtual tourism system, the SiteSeer3D, which will enhance tourism websites throughout the state with 3D mapping. At the heart of this system is an online database that generates content for the state’s flagship site, VisitIdaho.org. The site provides information on recreation, lodging and events throughout Idaho to consumers and links to tourism businesses and local chamber websites. With this enhanced technology, visitors to...

Google’s Street View service, which lets you zoom into Google Maps and stroll through the city streets in a 3D environment, is amazing in its own right, but it just got twice as amazing with its latest addition. As part of its effort to move beyond roads, and map, in 3D, amusement parks, college campuses, and hiking trails, Google Street View has just added incredible, interactive panoramas of the ancient ruins of Pompeii. Pompeii — the ruined and partially buried Roman city near...

An innovative initiative by two meetings and events industry associations has highlighted the ability of virtual events to enhance interaction with delegates and speakers. The findings stem from an educational event on the benefits and applications of Second Life technology, jointly organised by Eventia and the Institute of Travel and Meetings for their members. Entitled An Experiment With Second Life, the two associations ran the same content in both a real-life scenario at Event UK in Birm...

What did I do over the last long weekend? Touring in the Forbidden City, literally. In 2008, IBM launched the first Chinese 3D virtual tourism platform - Beyond Space and Time (The Virtual Forbidden City). In partnership with the Forbidden Palace Museum, IBM invested 3 years of time and over 3 million dollars to reconstruct a 3-dimensional replica of the world largest Imperial Palace standing today, the Forbidden City of China. The Forbidden City was built from 1406 to 1420, consists of 980 s...